El Shaddai – “the Lord mighty to pour forth sustenance and blessing” (Genesis 17:1-2). He is God all-powerful and all-sufficient, the name I want to live burning on the rest of this brand new year.
Standing at the dawn of a brand new year, you may be filled with many new goals. New dreams, new desires, new resolutions, new hopes — everything that promises the birth of something new, something better.
But how do you actually go about accomplishing them?
Sheer determination, strong willpower and a sharp focus alone may not be enough. Good in themselves, but void of the grace and empowerment of God, they may reduce life to mere number-producing, list-ticking, productivity-over-people achieving kind of existence. They may prove to be very toxic for the soul.
Instead of gritting our teeth for everyday to be something, why not make every sunrise a reason to celebrate? Make every day a little haven of a holiday. A holy day – where we meet with God for sustenance and strength. So we can prioritise and get our hearts right and our minds alive for what truly matter in life. Every turn of the day can be turned into an altar of worship, every moment a moment of thanks, every heartbeat a ryhtm of praise — because if we lose our way in Him, we will lose our place to truly thrive.
He is our source of blessings, and with Him being our provider, we need not strive.
When we are still, and learn to slow, we learn that we can succeed without striving, thrive even in our times of rest. We will praise instead of stress, learn that we can get really deep when we get really low on our knees.
He is our Jehovah Jireh – “the Lord who sees and provides” (Genesis 22:14). It is leaning upon His grace and knowing Him by His name that will suffice us this year, make us strong and cause us to soar this year.
Striving is born out of impatience, of wanting to make things happen instantly – but knowing your Provider seeing you, calling you, inviting you – you can really be at peace this year.